Sugarmilk Falls
by Ilona Van Mil
Picador, $90
In 1993 an inquisitive stranger enters a sequestered community in the wilds of maple-syrup-making Quebec. Although usually suspicious of outsiders, several locals open up to the newcomer when questions are asked about goings-on stretching back to the 1960s. Murder in the area - motivated by anything from racial prejudice to revenge, superstition and hunger for land - continues to divide the township. Unfortunately, the one man who has the answers, Father Mathieu, declines to join the public forum. On the strength of the opening pages alone, plus an outline of her story, Ilona van Mil won the Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger award in 2002 for Sugarmilk Falls. The Guardian newspaper compared van Mil's debut to David Guterson's best-selling Snow Falling Upon Cedars, adding that the distinctive angle of Sugarmilk Falls 'is the difficulty of establishing truth when presented with many different viewpoints'. Fellow author Judith Cutler also enjoyed the predicament presented. 'I do urge you to keep faith with the novel, for you will be richly rewarded,' she wrote.
